


moments in love

by romanoffsdanvers



Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Family, Awesome Natasha Romanov, Domestic Avengers, Fluff, Natasha Romanov Feels, Natasha Romanov Has Issues, Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Natasha Romanov Needs a Hug, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, POV Natasha Romanov, POV Steve Rogers, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Post-Serum Steve Rogers, Pre-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Protective Natasha Romanov, Protective Steve Rogers, Red Room (Marvel), Romantic Fluff, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:47:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29987922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romanoffsdanvers/pseuds/romanoffsdanvers
Summary: natasha reflects on when she fell in love with Steve and why she loves him.might do a part two with Steve reflecting on nat if you want!I wanted to look deeper inside their relationship and see how they could work and this is what I thought of. Steve is usually seen as so serious but when you look into him you see that's not really the case. The movies didn't explore that /that/ much, which is entirely the writing's fault!
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Natasha Romanov
Kudos: 24





	moments in love

_"Why do you love Steve? He's so serious."_

Natasha cannot count how many times she's been asked that question, whether it be from a S.H.I.E.L.D. co-worker, a fan, or even a fellow Avenger. She always smiles and thinks to herself that if you knew Steve Rogers, the man behind the Captain, you'd see that he's not so serious - at least not all the time. 

Truth to be told, when she first met him she didn't see the seriousness. She saw the man who had just come out of the ice, who was finding his place in the world and was discovering what this world even was. She watched him become a Captain, and maybe that's what enabled her to turn her head to his seriousness, as she noticed things in ways the other Avengers didn't. 

The redhead was observant, one would say. She noticed his inner cry for help when he claimed he understood a reference, and she saw how Tony Stark made quips and jokes at his expense. She noticed how that made Steve stop joking, stop trying to catch the reference, and transform back to the soldier he once was. Everyone was calling on him to be a leader, to lead the Avengers team, and Natasha saw how he molded himself into that role, because what was he if not a soldier? A Leader? She saw how leading the Avengers got him more accustomed to the world, she saw how being Captain America was the bridge to finding himself - or creating himself - in the world again. 

But was that really true? Was being Captain America and leading the Avengers who he was in the world now? For a time, that's what Natasha thought. That he was serious and strict and everything of what a leader was. Then, in 2014, she slowly met Steve Rogers, slowly got introduced to who was under the suit. 

She saw Steve Rogers for who he was. She realized that he had presented himself as Captain America to herself, the Avengers, and the world, but inside there was still the kid from Brooklyn. 

Natasha was her usual sarcastic and witty self and while she expected to be partnered up with _the Captain_ on S.H.I.E..L.D.'s mission - she found one-on-one it was _Steve_. 

He was charming. He was kind. He was real. She asked him who he wanted her to be and he said a friend - so she was. He wasn't serious, not really. He was someone who was trying his best to adjust and she desperately wanted him to be more than that, she wanted him to live. Because she knew what it was like to be in a world that you thought you knew and you didn't. That's exactly how she felt getting out of the Red Room and KGB, when she had come to the United States, to S.H.I.E.L.D. It was new. It was different. The person who helped her not just adjust but live was her best friend Clint Barton, and Natasha found herself wanting to be that person for Steve, and she saw that he had no one else. She played it off as being his friend at the time. 

Then, she'd make a quip, a joke, a remark and instead of brushing it off and telling her to focus like a normal Captain would - he played along. He quipped, he joked, he remarked but underlying she could still see Captain America infiltrating Steve Rogers, could still hear the Captain voice sneaking into his normal one. 

She found herself determined to find the core of who he was. And she did. 

When he saved her life. He had carried her out of danger, had wrapped a protective arm around her and kept it there, and Natasha knew with how he held her longer than carrying her when it was necessary that this wasn't the Captain doing what he needed to for a teammate - this was Steve Rogers worried and wanting to help his _friend_.

When Natasha asked Steve if he would trust her to save his life and he answered honestly, "I do now." That's when she started to fall. She had earned his trust, Steve Roger's trust. 

It took awhile but soon Natasha found that Captain America had become Steve Rogers - they weren't that different. Because she saw some of Steve in the Captain. In how he led. In how determined he was to help his best friend. 

Natasha learned that yes, Steve was serious, but he was serious when he didn't know you and when there was danger. When he met you and got closer to you he loosened up and could joke and laugh all the while giving out orders and finding bad guys. She found that he was like herself - serious when need be - but when you cared to look deeper inside, you found so much more. 

He grew from Captain America leading like a soldier and was now Captain America leading like Steve Rogers. Natasha felt so lucky that he allowed her to see that, and that's when she fell in love. 


End file.
